Census will let people declare more than one race Change to accommodate mixed-race citizens

October 30, 1997|By LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration announced yesterday it will allow mixed-race Americans for the first time to check off more than one racial category for themselves on the 2000 census.

After four years of heated cultural debate, the new policy is intended to permit a growing number of mixed-race Americans to acknowledge their varied heritage.

The government's new vision of racial identification ultimately will apply to every kind of federal data collection, from the census to annual household surveys conducted by the government, school registration forms and home mortgage applications.

Dress rehearsal

It will first be tried in a census dress rehearsal next spring, which is to take place in Sacramento, Calif.; 11 counties in South Carolina; and an Indian reservation in Wisconsin.

A competing proposal to create a general "multiracial" classification was rejected by the administration in favor of the multiple check-off system that will enable mixed-race Americans to report their heritage in greater detail.

"We are not closing the door on the expression of multiracial heritage; we are allowing people to express their multiracial heritage in whatever way they view themselves," said Franklin D. Raines, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The administration effectively adopted most of the recommendations made unanimously in July by a 30-agency task force assembled to address multiracial Americans, many of whom have objected to the government's attempt to wedge them into a rigid category.

A flood of comment

A flood of public comment poured into the White House after the recommendations were made, officials said.

"The public participation is particularly important because it reminds us constantly that there are people behind the numbers and for many, this is a deeply personal issue," said Sally Katzen, an OMB administrator.

All federal agencies will be expected to conform to the standards as soon as possible, but not later than Jan. 1, 2003, officials said.

Racial categories

Under the standards, people will be asked to "mark one or more" of these racial categories: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African-American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White.

A separate question pertaining to ethnicity will be expanded from just the word Hispanic to "Hispanic or Latino," based on research showing that Latino is a more popular word in the Western United States.

Other elements of the policy include:

Black will now read "Black or African-American."

The category "Asian or Pacific Islander" will be divided.

The government reasoned that under the old system, Native Hawaiians were being lost in the category dominated by Asians and will constitute a more representative number in the new grouping.

An ethnic category for Arab or Middle Eastern will not be added, although the government has decided to give the idea further study.